‘Coco’ Film Review: Pixar's candy coloured adventure will have you weeping in your seat

Coco, Disney’s latest animated feature, is as heartwarming and familiar as they come.

It’s filled with everything you come to expect from the animation juggernaut with the usual slapstick humour, toe-tapping music, moral lessons about the importance of family and an overarching message that you can be anything you want to be.

But as cute as it all may sound, buried underneath the vibrant candy coloured palette of this latest offering from Disney-Pixar, lies a frank and bittersweet examination of grief.

While death has shown up in Disney movies for decades, only recently have they gone beyond using tragic losses as devices in character development.

Now it has moved from a plot point to the subject of the movie, and in “Coco,” we see a different version of the afterlife, one without pearly gates, clouds, angel wings or halos.

The story follows 12 year old Miguel Rivera (Anthony Gonzalez) who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), despite his family's generations-old ban on music.

Desperate to prove his talent and search for answers about his missing great-grandfather, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colourful Land of the Dead.